The Gaza Strip, located in the southwestern side of historic Palestine, is a relatively small area of about 365 square kilometers, and is inhabited by more than 2.3 million people, including 75 % refugees (that is, nearly two million), since the establishment of the occupying state, living in thirteen camps, all of which lack the essential elements of life, which makes it one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Because of the occupation, the blockade and the repeated wars of the Israeli occupation army, the sector suffers from a worry in infrastructure, water and electricity crises, and the weakness of the health, economic, educational, social and other fields.
Tightening
After free elections, fairly with international certificates, in which the “Reform and Change” bloc won in the legislative elections (parliament), but the democracy that the world sings did not like this time, so the occupation imposed a strict siege on the sector, with international participation and silence.
The siege is to gradually close to most of the commercial crossings and those for individuals and patients, while maintaining one crossing through which limited quantities of aid enters, imposing a “banned goods list” that included more than three thousand materials, including building materials, fuel and raw materials, and basic materials such as infant formula and stationery!
The occupation also imposed a sea blockade, and prevented fishermen from work, burning and bombing their equipment.
All of this caused disastrous effects on various sectors, and led to an almost complete collapse in health, industrial, commercial, agricultural, and educational systems, and high rates of poverty and unemployment.
Breaking the wall between Gaza and Egypt
With the siege intensifying and preventing the entry of food to the residents of Gaza, the residents in 2008 were forced to take off the barbed wire between Gaza and Egypt, and hundreds of thousands flowing towards Egyptian lands, as the neighbor is closest to saving them from starvation and death, to get out of a humanitarian catastrophe and a deadly manner as it happens today.
People went to the markets and shops to buy food, medicines, fuel and all that they miss, and they returned to their families in Gaza to save the lives of the remaining survived.
Smuggling tunnels
The besieged people resorted to imposing a new reality to break the siege imposed on it (without humanity, legal or moral), and this was manifested in a plan to fight hunger and save the people of the sector whose death and annihilation are threatening.
The tunnels were dug between Gaza and Egypt, which caused the death of many of those who dug these tunnels with their bare hands, except for a few equipment, like that, like European and Vietnamese peoples along the border, in an attempt to break the Israeli siege and enter fuel, food and other goods into Gaza as commercial corridors, which seem to have international consensus as an alternative to border crossings.
The sister Egypt was aware of this, but it turned a blind eye to it. President Mubarak said at the time, after removing the thorny wire and the peaceful Palestinian crossing of the border: “The countries of the people of Ja`na are looking for food”, and they were monitoring and realizing that what comes through these tunnels is dedicated to the hungry and trapped and is done in commercial ways.
Later, it was agreed between the Palestinian side in Gaza and the Egyptian authorities to close the tunnels, replace them with an official commercial line, and to open the Rafah crossing to enter the goods from Egypt to Gaza, which reduced the famine and created a kind of stability.
And all of this was done in the sight of the world, and was silent about it so that it is not a partner in the crime of genocide, through the deadly Israeli starvation policy and within the policy of collective punishment, which violates international law and human norms.
War 2023 and the siege
With the start of the extermination war against Gaza in October 2023, the occupation restored the siege policy, but this time more and more severe, as the crossings were completely closed, including the Rafah crossing, and any aid truck was prohibited from entering, the sea was closed, and electricity and water were cut off.
For nearly two years, the siege has been constantly imposed, and sometimes it reduces the introduction of limited quantities of aid to absorb modest international pressure, in light of the survival of the policy of closure and siege, an announced approach to the occupation.
The art of deepening famine
The Israeli occupation, through its political, military and media arms, is mastered in deepening famine in the Gaza Strip, and preventing the entry of relief aid or goods, while trying to deliver the world to the opposite of reality through fabricated accounts and propaganda steps.
Actually, the occupation does not allow the introduction of any kind of aid, which is mainly provided by Arab and foreign countries and humanitarian institutions, and does not come from the occupation. Its role is only to allow it to enter, by virtue of being an occupying power, which is a legal duty, not often or generous.
Military strategy
The occupation treats the file of humanitarian aid to more than two million people in Gaza as part of a tight military strategy: a comprehensive blockade, a comprehensive entry, then limited grace on harsh security conditions.
Recently, the occupation announced the establishment of the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” in 2025, a special entity established in coordination with American security figures, with indirect sponsorship of the Donald Trump administration, and with the support of private security companies. The task of distributing aid was entrusted to it during the war, according to the report of the Palestinian Center for Israeli Studies “Madar”.
This institution depends on a limited number of central distribution centers, most of them in the center and south of the sector, and are managed through armed contractors, without direct supervision of the occupation army.
The occupation promotes the institution as an alternative to international and international institutions, but the reality reveals otherwise; This mechanism has caused the fall of martyrs and wounded from the fellow, perhaps more than a number of actually received aid!
Security background aid
The occupation tried to show the distribution of aid as if in line with international law, and established a new entity after distorting and falsely accusing international and charitable institutions.
But this new institution, which spoke international media reports about security and military backgrounds for its founders, faced widespread criticism of what was described as “tight death.”
Dozens of videos showed that the Foundation was announcing on Facebook that the distribution center was opened at 12 noon, so thousands of women are wrapped, and then during the 15 minutes the distribution ended to deplete the quantity!
Is it reasonable that thousands of aid be distributed in only a quarter of an hour?!
While people do not know that the “false distribution” ended before it begins, they are shot by the occupation soldiers and the elements of the armed institution. Is it reasonable for charitable work to take up arms?!
The number of martyrs from the awaits of food aid has reached more than 550, in addition to more than 3 thousand and 500 injuries.
According to the government media office, 80% of the aid martyrs are young, 14% of children, 3% of women, and 3% of the elderly.
Therefore, the major international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and Oxfam, rejected cooperation with this institution, and considered it a threat to the principles of humanitarian work: safety, neutrality, and non -alignment.
UN and moral controls
According to international humanitarian law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention (Articles 59-61), and customary international law (Al Qaeda 55), strict obligations are made on the occupation:
- Providing aid only on the basis of need, without discrimination.
- Ensure the safety of aid and distributed organizations.
- Not to use the distribution in a discriminatory, humiliating or dangerous manner.
- Not using starvation as a weapon, as a war crime according to the International Criminal Court.
Occupation responsibilities
The occupying power is legally obligated to provide food, water, medicine, and protection for the population under its authority, and to accept aid and organize their distribution without discrimination.
Driving the population of food or imposing collective penalties is a war crime, as stipulated in the Rome Court.
Safe distribution places should be determined, people are not forced to gather in dangerous areas, and provide field transportation and facilities that guarantee safety and preserve dignity.
But the reality indicates the opposite, as distribution centers are held in “closed military areas”, without transportation, which exposes civilians to humiliation and destruction.
Correct human work mechanisms
International humanitarian work is based on coordinating efforts between international and local organizations through sectoral working groups (health, water, shelter …); To ensure the effectiveness of the human response.
Despite the complications in conflict areas such as Sudan and Syria, there is a clear commitment to humanitarian organizations to provide life -saving aid, unlike what is happening in Gaza.
International system and law
The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits starvation as a weapon, and provides special protection for civilians under occupation.
Security Council Resolution 2720 was issued on December 22, 2023, calling for the delivery of aid and the opening of the crossings immediately.
As for the claim that “UNRWA” works for the benefit of the factions, it is invalid, as the agency confirmed and contradicts international law.
Among the most relevant laws:
1- Facilitating the transit of aid- the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 59.
2- Starting starvation- the articles of association of the International Criminal Court.
3- Neutrality and transparency of distribution- customary international law.
4- Providing safe places and not imposing forced mobility- ICRC.
Will Gaza be silent for a long time?
The question remains: Will Gaza be silent for a long time? I think that the continuation of starvation and the siege may push residents to search for several options, including a return to peaceful marches towards the occupied homeland, or otherwise. The swing will not be silent long.
Neighborhood is to realize that the invading, if the choice of death is made by starvation or trying to impose the reality of life with his effort, then he will choose the choice of life.
The opinions in the article do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al -Jazeera.
